Stratification in Natural Water Bodies:Some Implications for Harbour and Ocean Engineering

• Main Author: Møller, Jacob Steen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ARS-publishers 2004
• Subjects: Harbour Engineering; Stratification; Hydraulics; Greenland
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/89f57d3b-c8ae-41af-8052-4a39d25a2c5e

Density stratification of natural water bodies plays an important role for a number of civil engineering problems. The origin of stratification in natural water is discussed and the Black Sea, the Gulf of Katchch, and Maarmorilik Fiord in Greenland are described and used as examples. Stratification has a number of civil engineering implications. The lock exchange problem is used as a canonical example, and implications for water exchange and sedimentation is discussed by means of examples: Sedimentation in locks and estuaries, salt transport into fresh water reservoirs, water exchange of negative estuaries, immersing of tunnel elements, and others. The paper describes the methods available when the civil engineer encounters a stratification related problem: Field experimentation and monitoring, analytical methods, physical and numerical modelling. Finally the paper advocates that integrated field investigation and 3D numerical modelling is state of art for civil engineering studies affected by stratified flows.